Optical navigation sensors are conventionally used for surface navigation applications. For example, conventional optical navigation sensors are implemented in optical mouse devices for desktop computers. In surface optical navigation, the optical navigation sensor tracks the features of the navigation surface on which the device is moved.
More recently, optical navigation sensors have been used for free space navigation applications such as scene navigation. In some conventional embodiments, an optical navigation sensor for surface navigation is converted for use in free space applications by putting a wide angle lens on the optical sensor to track free space features. These conventional free space navigation devices are used for applications such as free-space presentation pointers and controllers. Other conventional technologies are also implemented to facilitate free space navigation operations. For example, some conventional free-space pointers use one or more mechanical gyroscopes (or gyro sensors) to provide navigation in the absence of surface features.
Despite the availability of individual surface and free space navigation devices, most conventional optical navigation devices do not provide the functionality of both surface and free space navigation capability in a single device. When a user gives a presentation, for example using a desktop computer, the user typically uses a mouse for desktop navigation and a separate pointer to navigate the presentation. The mouse provides surface navigation functionality, while the separate pointer provides free space navigation functionality.
For conventional optical navigation devices that integrate surface and free space navigation functionality, separate surface and free space navigation sensors are combined in a single package. However, many of the functional blocks on the surface navigation sensor and the free space navigation sensor are duplicated. Thus, the cost of such devices is unnecessarily high. Additionally, the form factor of conventional integrated optical navigation devices suffers from large packaging design. The form factor of conventional integrated optical navigation devices also suffers, in some instances, from irregularity and imbalance, in particular, because of the accommodations for the separate free space navigation sensor at the front of the optical navigation device.